BillP's Book\Miniature\Wargame Blog

I also finished Helen Fielding’s, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy a sequel taking place 15 years or so after Edge of Reason. The book takes place when Bridget is 51 and covers her life as a single mom to two children after her husband Mark Darcy is killed during a Land Mine Activism trip abroad, five years before the novel opens.  It is vintage Bridget Jones, the voice and writing style are completely seamless with the previous books. Fielding has done an excellent job aging the character. I’m sure that fans of Bridget will love this one too. The rest of you need not bother.

90 for the year.

Having read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy a few months ago, I decided to read the other two works in Le Carre’s “Karla” Trilogy, The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People. I’m afraid they were a bit of a mixed bag. While Smiley’s People was, indeed, excellent, almost as good as the phenomenal TTSS, I’m afraid Schoolboy was not quite up to the other two books in the series. In fact, it can be safely skipped without harming the arc of the meta-story, as long as you’re aware of one key fact, Smiley is more or less forcibly retired at the end of the second volume.

That being said, both books are vintage Le Carre, very atmospheric and evocative of the middle of the Cold-War and very intricately plotted, requiring readers read carefully and pay full attention if they are to keep up. They are also very well written. If you like spy thillers you’ll LOVE Smiley’s People, and at least like Schoolboy.

89 for the year

I just finished reading Pat Conroy’s latest work, The Death of Santini, and I have to say, it the finest book I’ve read in the past few years. The book is, essentially, a warts and all, family history of Conroy’s dysfunctional clan, told by the most eloquent and lyrical writer I know of. As I’m sure everyone knows by now, Conroy, a Marine brat, and his six brothers and sisters were physically and emotionally abused by his father, noted Marine Aviator COL Donald P. Conroy. And, of course, much of that childhood abuse has featured prominently in many of Conroy’s novels over the years.  This book is the story of how Conroy’s family, particularly his parents, dealt with the aftermath of Conroy writing so candidly about his upbringing.

The centerpiece of the book, is really kind of the redemption, I guess you’d say of COL Conroy. After reading The Great Santini, he disappeared for three days from his Atlanta apartment, and when he reappeared he seemed to have fundamentally changed into something of a wiser and more gentle man determined not to make the same mistakes with his grandchildren.

The book is extraordinarily well written with all of the eloquence and evocative prose we’ve come to expect from Conroy. If you’re at all a fan of Conroy, you simply must read this book.

87 for the year.